I mostly automate things, but before you reach that step, you need to understand what information and processes to automate by learning how to day trade. Step 1: I look at the futures to see what the day is supposed to look like. (Today market looking a little flat.) https://pic8.co/sh/AGeYkX.png You can also check how the international markets did, in comparison with the futures. Step 2: Find all the "Strong Buy" (or equivalent) stocks. I recommend you check many analyst ratings on many platforms, but, to get started, use TradingView. Sort by Volume to see what people are most interested in, today. https://pic8.co/sh/DBCIHX.png This morning, there are 1407 Strong Buy stocks of maybe 6,000 total. Looking pretty good for a day that will supposedly be flat. Step 3: Check for Unusual Option Activity. https://pic8.co/sh/EjPqOY.png Again, sort by volume. If you see something at the top of TradingView and something at the top of Unusual Option Activity, you will almost certainly want to be trading that stock, today. Today, options are telling me to play with SNDL and AAPL. However, I bought a few thousand dollars worth of NAK, at the top of the TradingView list, at 38 cents. So, this stock will be my primary concern, today. Generally, I sell half if I double my money, so I will likely be selling half of my NAK today. Step 4: Zero in on a stock. In this case, I'm liking NAK. https://pic8.co/sh/qgL8xG.png What I see, when I look at the chart, is that I need to sell most of my NAK if the stock reaches $1.85. I will hold onto a small amount, in the event that it moons to $18.00. The odds of it hitting $18 are very, very slim. The odds of it going past $18 are astronomical. The trading algorithms will test a previous high, no problem. A high from a while back is where they will test if it breaks that "resistance" line. I will be selling 100% of the stock should it get to $18. Point being, don't guess prices outside of the channels the algorithms will be trading in. If you are really terrible at the numbers, just set your sell limit .5% - 1% higher than your buy price. You'll get it in a day or two. Step 5: Time it right. Everyday, the stock market follows a similar pattern. https://pic8.co/sh/pmKXKG.png The best time to buy is usually about 11:30am, market time. The best time to sell is usually around 9:45am, market time, the next day. If you "Buy at Lunch" and "Sell in the Morning", you can usually narrow your trading time down to 1 hour, starting at 9am, market time, then come back for a half hour at 11:30am. An hour and half a day is reasonable, once you get rolling. It is a lot less, once you've automated the searches. Part of timing is also watching the S&P chart. If the S&P is rising drastically, instead of slightly dipping at 11:30, you are going to have to rethink your plan or simply do nothing. What you want is the S&P to be slightly dipping, at the same time as the normal trend (lifetime average of the market), AND for the stock to be slightly dipping, as well. THREE CHARTS, ALL DIPPING AT THE SAME TIME. - The S&P Chart - The Daily Average Chart (which never changes) - The Stock Chart https://pic8.co/sh/V4MF4w.png There is a little more flexibility when you sell, because you already know if it is in the money, or not. But, the idea is the same. Sell when the highs align. It's really that easy to get started. My main piece of advice for beginners is: DO NOT buy anything other than a "Strong Buy" (or highly rated across multiple platforms) and make sure the Yahoo Finance page shows a "Bullish" Stochastic and that "Short, Medium, Long" projections are all Bullish. If you buy a "Strong Buy" on TradingView, that also appears Bullish on all the Yahoo meters, you will make a little money every time. You may not make it in a day, but you will get your profit when the algorithms start back testing peaks. Bonus points if it is a dividend stock, because you will make money if you have to hold it. This strategy has yielded me a 99.9% success rate. It works because of "market irregularities", which is really representative of "price uncertainty". You just need to guess within a slightly more narrow margin compared to what the automated trading systems are guessing. What will happen, when you focus on these small daily gains, is that you will be sitting on 20 to 30 great stocks where one of them WILL spike. That is where I like to be. Like, today, I am sitting on NAK. It's going to be a great day for me and I'll only have to put forth 1 minute of effort at about 9:45am. Diversify your positions to catch those occasional leaps in profit. tl;dr The road to wealth is a slow, steady march. Do not fall for the tricks that Reddit's "WallStreetBets" are playing. There are plenty of good plays to be made, but they will naturally happen to you if you are day trading correctly. Once you start regularly getting 100 stacks, then options start to become an easier way to work with your equities. Just remember to keep your spreads in slightly more narrow than the algotraders. Edit: This morning sold TTT, BMBL, NAK, PZZA. Targeted 1% gains, did quite a bit better than that on each. I'm looking at BMBL again for the 11:30 buy. I think the price is outrageous, but the cabal is into it, so it may be another Beyond Meat. Edit 2: Buying AKRO, TRX, BMBL, AAPL. We'll check in with them, tomorrow. Edit 3: If you check the charts, you will see the prices of my buy time (11:00 market time) and how each of these charts went up a smidgen, after that. As I've mentioned; I'm shooting for a 1% gain each trade and that is where my sell limits are automatically set at unless I manually change it. This helps me not get greedy. I Made about $1 a share on BMBL, AKRO selling same day, beating 1% target. They since dropped. Made about .09 cents a share on TRX, meeting 1% target. It has since dropped. My worst was AAPL, where I also made about a dollar per share, but that is less than the targeted 1% gain within 24 hours. So, once again, we have a 100% success rate making a profit, though I was slightly under where I would have liked to have been due to AAPL.